" ,, , I , ,, ,, - ,, /,, I ,, ."; I . ,.. ,, .:1' %>> " me that Negin had been hurt is shy and law-abiding, and she pampers her teen- age son so much that everyone jokes that until recently he didn't know that apples had pips. Yet, over the summer, she went out once or twice a week to defY the power of the state. Even after violence turned the demonstrations into ordeals of nerve, she and others like her ! f I -3. stood among the protesters, trembling with fear but voicing their hatred of the regime. N egin opened the door. (I've changed her name and the names of others in this piece.) She is a strong, well-built woman in her mid-forties, with long black hair and a brilliant, even smile. It was a shock to see her now. One of her cheeks was bruised, the skin broken, and she limped heavily. She was wearing trousers, and told me that both of her legs were swollen and blue. She laughed and said, "Everyone looks so horrified when they see me that I can only say, 'It looks as though you're the one who got a trun- cheon in the face!' " Negin lives on her own in a small, fifth-floor apartment. Living alone makes her an exception in a country where women are expected to leave their par- ents' home only when they enter their husband's. She was born into a traditional family in a provincial town in central Iran, and has not told her parents that she at- tended the demonstrations. Her mother is a strong supporter of the Islamic Re- public and of its leader, Ayatollah Ali . -0( , . '- erately well known, and supplements her income by working as a school adminis- trator. We sat on chairs near her book- shelves, which were full of art books, eating chunks of melon, as she told me her story. The demonstration of August 5th was the first that Negin had attended on her own. She usually went with a friend or in . -0( .J1S " ...- . --( " , i r I' I \ I, ,.:-.. -'I I( . --( f' j, ql' I. - .... Jt II " I ; ;, !, \ . f ' ! ' ,. III .... '-_. III .... " .... r L. , . . I \, " ' , I I ::, !', '!'; i h ',: ! i, ,,', :;\It . ,; f I , I, I',. .]/;, \ I 1.:, · f ! I Khamenei, and a paternal uncle holds a position in the Revolutionary Guard. Whenever Negin sees this handsome, courteous man at family gatherings, she wonders if he has blood on his hands. The uncle has two sons who are in the Basij, a government-linked militia. When she went to the demonstrations, Negin half expected to see her cousins among the Basijis, lining up to hit and kick her. Negin's apartment, which also serves as her art studio, was neat, with well- tended potted plants on the balcony, and canvases carefully stacked in a corner of her sitting room. N egin is a fine drafts- woman, with a subtle sense of color, and if she had a greater appetite for self-pro- motion she might be a celebrated painter. But, following her own tastes rather than those of buyers or critics, she is only mod- , " a group. Lone women can be vulnerable, so she intended to stay in her car, driving around among the demonstrators, honk- ing and flashing a furtive "V" -for-victory sign. (If the police or the Basij see you doing this, they may take down your li- cense number, and you risk arrest later; or they might smash your windshield.) But then she had seen some big groups walk- ing around, shouting slogans. Although the police were watching, the scene ap- peared calm, so she parked her car and joined one of the groups. 'We were walking up and down the street, shouting our slogans, and then suddenly the police ran toward us," N egin said. "Everyone turned to flee, of course, but something came over me, and I couldn't move. I just stood like a fool. The police were getting closer and closer, and Many Iranian women enjoy high levels of education but are nonetheless subject to some of the harshest gender laws in the world.